EPRA: Loan to values will not exceed 70%

Property investors are not going to be able to borrow at more than a 70% loan to value ratio until at least 2011.

That was the view held by panellists at the European Public Real Estate Association annual conference today in Stockholm.

Paul Rivlin, founder of private equity company Palatium Investment Management told delegates from Europe's quoted sector he expected the number of banks able to lend on property to increase over the next three years.

But he said gearing ratios of 90% loan to value, seen before the credit crisis last summer would be replaced with more conservative ratios of between 65%-70% throughout this year and up to 2011.

'I would expect to see an increase in banks in the market, although not as many as before (the credit crunch).

'The 65%-70% ratio is not going to change for two reasons. One - structural changes (within the lending markets) means debt will become more expensive and two - they (the banks) have now been hurt by past experience.'

Rivlin said mezzanine debt - junior debt that is lent to bridge the arbitrage between senior debt and equity - will become much more available to investors. He said: 'That will be the future of debt funding and the lenders will be new funds and non-banking institutions.'

He predicted that more mezzanine finance would become available in Europe. Currently, most global mezzanine debt comes from the US.

Ian Coull, chief executive of Segro, said that after 2011 loan to value ratios could rise again.

He said: 'The property industry has a remarkable capacity for forgetting about economic cycles.'

'There will be a new generation of lenders and bankers who will find ways of lending shed loads of money to make things happen. The next generation will not look back and learrn.'